The 650 French words that carry most conversations

Word frequency is brutally top-heavy. In spoken-corpus studies, the most frequent ~1,000 word families cover roughly 85% of everyday speech, and the curve is steepest at the very top. The words below sit on that steep part: concrete, picturable, and worth knowing in any French conversation you're likely to have.

This is the exact list every Verbamor learner's deck is seeded with on day one (we build on Wyner's Fluent Forever base list, tuned by our card-quality pipeline). Nothing on this page is paywalled inside the app; we're giving you the list because the list was never the hard part. Making 650 words stick is.

The first 100

French · words 1–100 of 628

#	Word	English	Type
1	aller (allons)	to go	verb
2	petit / petite	small	adjective
3	facile	easy	adjective
4	demander (demande)	to ask	verb
5	fermé / fermée	closed	adjective
6	dire (dit)	to say	verb
7	l'eau	water	noun
8	manger (mangent)	to eat	verb
9	grand / grande	large	adjective
10	triste	sad	adjective
11	cassé / cassée	broken	adjective
12	le vêtement	clothing	noun
13	le café	coffee	noun
14	sale	dirty	adjective
15	l'hôpital	hospital	noun
16	boire (boit)	to drink	verb
17	le cheveu	hair	noun
18	le trafic	traffic	noun
19	la cuisine	kitchen	noun
20	danser (dansent)	to dance	verb
21	la chanson	song	noun
22	la rue	street	noun
23	le marché	market	noun
24	cuisiner (cuisine)	to cook	verb
25	bonjour	hello	interjection
26	se battre (se battent)	to fight	verb
27	dangereux / dangereuse	dangerous	adjective
28	penser (pense)	to think	verb
29	marcher (marche)	to walk	verb
30	embrasser (embrasse)	to kiss	verb
31	fâché / fâchée	angry	adjective
32	difficile	difficult	adjective
33	nouveau / nouvelle	new	adjective
34	large	wide	adjective
35	tôt	early	adverb
36	quand	when	adverb
37	le repas	meal	noun
38	ouvrir (ouvre)	open	verb
39	s'arrêter (s'arrête)	stop	verb
40	il	he	pronoun
41	vieux / vieille	old	adjective
42	ils / elles	they	pronoun
43	bon / bonne	good	adjective
44	je	I	pronoun
45	l'armée	army	noun
46	tu	you (singular, informal)	pronoun
47	deuxième (2e)	second	adjective
48	écouter (écoute)	to listen	verb
49	hier	yesterday	adverb
50	l'avocat	lawyer	noun
51	aujourd'hui	today	adverb
52	elle	she	pronoun
53	mauvais / mauvaise	bad	adjective
54	demain	tomorrow	adverb
55	nous	we	pronoun
56	délicieux / délicieuse	delicious	adjective
57	dur / dure	hard	adjective
58	le fan	fan	noun
59	l'artiste	artist	noun
60	même	same	adjective
61	photographier (photographie)	to shoot	verb
62	le menu	menu	noun
63	différent / différente	different	adjective
64	la sauce	sauce	noun
65	assoiffé / assoiffée	thirsty	adjective
66	faux / fausse	wrong	adjective
67	trouver (trouve)	to find	verb
68	content / contente	happy	adjective
69	travailler (travaille)	to work	verb
70	affamé / affamée	hungry	adjective
71	ce / cet / cette / ces	this	pronoun
72	étroit / étroite	narrow	adjective
73	beau / belle	beautiful	adjective
74	sourire (sourit)	to smile	verb
75	le prêtre	priest	noun
76	le rendez-vous	date (romantic)	noun
77	mort / morte	dead	adjective
78	riche	rich	adjective
79	le ciel	heaven	noun
80	le soldat	soldier	noun
81	appeler (appelle)	to call	verb
82	l'enfer	hell	noun
83	long / longue	long	adjective
84	ample	loose	adjective
85	sauter (saute)	to jump	verb
86	jouer (jouent)	to play	verb
87	l'allergie	allergy	noun
88	vivant / vivante	alive	adjective
89	courir (court)	to run	verb
90	la mort	death	noun
91	pauvre	poor	adjective
92	goûter (goûte)	to taste	verb
93	épais / épaisse	thick	adjective
94	l'entreprise	company	noun
95	sourd / sourde	deaf	adjective
96	la religion	religion	noun
97	l'appartement	flat	noun
98	entendre (entend)	to hear	verb
99	laid / laide	ugly	adjective
100	fondre (fond)	to melt	verb

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